Friday, September 15, 2006

The Kadet Kit

I enjoy shooting, but I view it as training. Towards that end I've developed a pattern to my training that I've been fairly consistent with.

I start off with my CZ 75B topped with a Kadet Kit.

For those unfamiliar with them the Kadet Kit is an "upper" plus magazines that fit the 75/85 family. It fires 22 LR rounds. It functions exactly like the proper top end, it just fires the inexpensive and mild 22 LR.

You can by the Kadet as a whole pistol but then you have nothing but a 22. You would have to go and buy a 75/85 if you also want the ability to fire centerfire cartridges. By buying the 9mm or .40 75/85 and a Kadet Kit you wind up with one gun that fires two different rounds.

The balance of the pistol remains the same. If you have trigger work done on your 75 then you have the same trigger when you go to fire the Kadet Kit.

With almost no recoil the Kadet Kit gives you a very practical training tool.

I generally fire 25-50 22 LR rounds through my Kadet before switching to the 9mm. There is a big difference between the recoil but if you get used to not having the pistol jump then you aren't anticipating the recoil. You can work on getting rid of any tendency to flinch.

After swapping to the 9mm I fire 20-50 rounds through the 75, then switch to the smaller framed 9s like the P 01.

I've heard it from men I respect that one should not fire more than 50 rounds, but they also explain that it's 50 rounds from the same gun when training. The Kadet Kit rounds don't count against the 9mm rounds from the 75. The rounds fired from the 75 don't count against the ones from the P 01. By having multiple guns I can train longer. I generally put the guns away when my form starts to dissolve and my groups are getting larger. PERFECT practice makes perfect. Practicing when you are too tired only reinforces bad habits.

Right now I'm trying to shoot each firearm to as tight a group as I can. This forces me to work on proper grip and trigger control. As I've said before I have been shooting at 50 feet but I've also backed up to 25 feet to see the results. Shooting at longer range is helping me to tighten up on the closer targets, too.

2 comments:

Your gun store should be able to get the Kadet Kit ordered. It's not cheap, though it should cost less than the CZ 75 Kadet pistol. Those tend to run in the $400 range.

I did a quick search for Kadet Kits on GunBroker and found 2. One for just over 250.00 and the other for 275.

I don't know if these require an FFL or if they can be sent from a dealer direct to your home. I would call one of the places selling them on GunBroker and ask. DiscountGunner.com has one and I've dealt with them in the past purchasing genuine CZ magazines at more reasonable prices than the CZ-USA website sells them for.